feel good food that's good for you

This is a recipe we come back to again and again: a hearty, wholesome one-pot mess of colourful vegetables, warm spices, and creamy chickpeas. This vegan dinner staple is great straight out of the pan yet, like all such recipes improves over a few days.

But sometimes we want to shake it up a bit. Add new spices; amp others. Make it less stewy and more pie-y. You get me? Read on to see what easy tweaks you can make to my original chickpea and vegetable tagine recipe, found here.I’ve altered the recipe a bit and posted it below, but it’s not terribly different to my first page of Google one (I know!). This tagine is an oldie but goodie that, because of its popularity in the Interwebs, I needed to visually upgrade as it wasn’t very”pinnable”. I hope you like the recipe as much as we do.

We adore the intense but not hot spicing – the ochre and fire colours; the soft fall-apartness of the chickpeas; the dried fruits that submit to the mellow sauce; the over-the-top quantity of vegetables; the slowness of method. It is kind of time-standing-still cooking. Not perhaps suited to a quick midweek meal, but a productive and fragrant way to spend a few hours at the weekend in preparation for the week ahead. The beauty of much North African cooking is that once you’ve made it – hopefully a big batch – it tastes even better the next day and the next. Although North Africans do indeed eat meat, they are very clever and creative with vegetables, pulses and grains. Something we can learn from.

Do let me know if you make it and how you enjoyed it best. I love hearing from you and finding out what you’ve been making and tweaking from here on Food To Glow. If you follow me on Pinterest you will see what I’m pinning and dreaming of making.

Life’s too short for boring food. Make what you eat healthy, colourful, craveable and, most of all, fun. xx

PS My tagine potentially has 16 vegetables, but I thought that might scare some of you! 😉

10-Vegetable Tagine

This is a recipe we come back to again and again: a hearty, wholesome one-pot mess of colourful vegetables, warm spices, and creamy chickpeas. It’s great straight out of the pan but, like all such recipes improves over a few days. So, make more than you can eat and either freeze the rest or serve it up in one of the guises shown.

Vegan, high in fibre and deliciously healthy family food. I’ve made it deliberately huge so you can eat it on the day, have a day of leftovers and freeze the rest. Oh, and use chopped frozen if you like for some of the fresh veg.

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 red onions, peeled and chopped

2 medium carrots, peeled (keep peel if organic) and sliced

2 tsp each ground cinnamon, ground coriander, ground cumin

2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 & 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted in a dry pan and ground with pestle and mortar or spice grinder

1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy lidded pan over a low-medium heat. Add the onions and saute gently for 10 minutes with the lid loosely on; stirring occasionally. Stir in the spices and garlic, cooking for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add a tablespoon of water if it looks like it may burn.

ingredients for the tagine, including my rose harissa, frozen and chopped for adding in

2. Add in the vegetables and chickpeas, along with tomato puree, chopped tomatoes, preserved lemon, dried fruit and harissa (if using), plus the stock/water. Bring up to the boil and then turn down to a very gentle simmer. Cover and leave for about 45 minutes., stirring once or twice. Season to taste after it cools down a bit.

3. The stew should be left for the flavours to develop as it cools a little. It actually (as with most stews) tastes better the next day. The tagine freezes well, too.

**** Tagine Three Ways ****

As Flatbread Pizza: Dollop leftover and room temperature vegetable tagine onto a Lebanese flatbread and drizzle with a little good olive oil and pile on lightly griddled halloumi cheese slices. Place on a preheated baking tray and into a hot oven (200C/400F) for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with green salad, pomegranate arils and fresh mint. You could also skip the whole pizza thing and just wrap it in a room temperature wrap with salad and pomegranate arils.

With Couscous: Add 100g of dried wholegrain couscous, ½ tsp of salt and a handful of snipped dried apricots (unsulphured if possible), dried cherries (what I often use) or prunes to a wide-ish bowl and pour over 225ml of just-boiled water and 1 tsp of good extra virgin olive oil. Cover and leave for 15 minutes. Add another teaspoon of the oil, or a small knob of butter, and place in 180C/350F oven for 10 minutes then fluff with a fork. Couscous is quick and easy to make when the stew is finished simmering and is coming down to a manageable temperature. Serve a big ladle of tagine onto a smaller spoon of couscous and top with shredded mint.

As Pie: Spoon leftover vegetable tagine into a cast iron skillet or pie dish and top with buttered phyllo pastry. I sometimes add crumbled feta cheese on top of the vegetables before adding the pastry layers and baking for 20 minutes in a 200C/400F oven. It’s nice to add about good pinch of the North African spice mix, ras al hanout, to a knob of melted butter for brushing on the layers – about four of them is sufficient. Yogurt with a swirl of harissa added is a great hot-cold splash on.

I'm Kellie, an ex-pat American cancer health educator with a taste for global food - and big flavours - made with fresh, seasonal British ingredients. Food To Glow is mainly 'plant-based', but you will find the occasional decadent treat - usually with a healthy tweak. Although I'm an omnivore, I speak fluent vegan: most of my non-vegan recipes will have vegan alternatives, as well as gluten-free and soft food diet options where appropriate. All recipes are tested out on family, friends and/or my cancer nutrition classes at the Maggies Cancer Caring Centres. You are very welcome to read, comment and share!

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